Two captive beluga whales who had been held at an entertainment facility in China have just been given a chance to stretch their flippers in a new sea pen sanctuary.
Floyd and Susan Martin were random source Class B dealers who, over the years, kept thousands of animals in appalling conditions at their Chestnut Grove Kennels in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
The second session of the 114th Congress opened in January. On the 20th of the month, despite strong minority opposition and contentious debate, the Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works approved the “Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act” (S 659).
Even as some state legislatures seek to cover up abuse via ag-gag bills, a few are in pursuit of higher ground: last year, Rhode Island joined a growing list of states that prohibit intensive confinement crates for calves raised for veal and gestating sows. Rhode Island also became the fourth state to ban routine tail docking of cattle.
As reported in the Winter 2014 AWI Quarterly, a dispute resolution panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) reached a landmark decision this past November in a case brought by Canada and Norway against the European Union (EU) because of the EU’s ban on imports of commercial seal products.
"Barbaric, Barbaric, Barbaric!" This is the phrase recently opined by Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, our nation's longest-serving US Senator and last great political orator. Following news of charges leveled against Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick, Senator Byrd described the tragic and gruesome practice of dog fighting in a heartfelt speech on the Senate floor.
Gray wolf expansion into previously occupied habitat is among the most ecologically successful but socially controversial wildlife restoration efforts undertaken in the western United States. Conflicts between wolves and humans arising from livestock depredation have resulted in the killing of thousands of wolves and continue to undermine species recovery. More than 100 studies indicate that nonlethal methods of deterring carnivores from livestock are as effective as or superior to lethal control.
Barn fires cause immense suffering, killing hundreds of thousands of farmed animals every year. Some farmed animals die almost immediately as fires burn through the barns, while others have to be euthanized later due to severe burns and smoke inhalation.
The Animal Welfare Institute released an updated report in January 2025, compiling information on the prevalence and causes of farmed animal deaths due to barn fires during the preceding three-year period (2022–2024). During those years, over 2.53 million farmed animals perished in barn fires. Over ninety-eight percent of those deaths were were farmed birds. The high death toll from these incidents is being driven primarily by fires occurring at massive operations housing several thousand to over 1 million animals.
This past year, over 1.6 million farm animals were reported killed in barn fires across the United States, making 2020 the deadliest year since AWI began tracking these incidents through media reports.
More than 150,000 farm animals perished in potentially preventable barn fires in the United States in 2018, an Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) analysis of media reports to date has found.
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) released a first-of-its-kind report highlighting the more than 2.7 million US farm animals who perished in potentially preventable barn fires from 2013 to 2017. The report, issued in advance of National Fire Prevention Week (Oct. 7-13), offers recommendations for barn fire prevention and improved fire safety to better protect farm animals.
Bats live on every continent except Antarctica and serve extremely important ecological roles as pollinators, seed dispersers and consumers of vast quantities of insects. Although some societies value these useful animals, many persecute bats based on irrational prejudice and fears of rabies.
At least 47 Canada lynx have been illegally trapped in Maine over the past decade and despite a designation as threatened on the federal endangered species list, a court has declined to accord lynx adequate protection from illegal trapping under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In the Summer 2012 AWI Quarterly, we reported that more than 10,000 animals each year are shot, stabbed, mutilated, and killed in military training exercises.
A butterfly’s life is fragile at the best of times. But these are hardly the best of times. Indeed, all the indicators and experts agree: The butterflies are now enduring very serious challenges. Extinction is overtaking them in the distant forests of Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea, as well as in the British countryside, the Mexican hill country, the Northern Great Plains, southern Florida, and our own backyards.
“Operation Something Bruin,” a four-year, multi-agency sting operation involving state officials from Georgia and North Carolina, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and National Park Service, has resulted in the arrest of 80 people charged with some 980 wildlife violations in connection with bear poaching in the region.
Keggie Carew’s background is not in science (her career started in contemporary art), and it shows. Her book, Beastly: The 40,000-Year Story of Animals and Us, is not the first book to consider the combined history of humans and nonhuman animals, but it takes a unique approach to the tale.
There I stood upon a steep hillside in the lush and wild heart of Idaho, using all fours to steady myself, though not nearly as deftly as my canine co-worker, Wicket.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) applauds U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) for introducing legislation yesterday that would invest in effective, nonlethal solutions to reduce property damage caused by beavers.
Part narrative, part reference source, Leila Philip’s Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America provides incredible information about beavers—from their physiology and behaviors to their entwined history with humankind in the United States and the threats they now face.
The importance of providing woodchips for hygienic purposes has been established by Chamove et al (1982), and the provisioning of bedding materials is encouraged for environmental enrichment by Bayne (1989). At the Primate Foundation of Arizona (PFA), we provide bedding materials along with woodchips for these reasons and to encourage natural wild chimpanzee activities, such as foraging, nesting, and tool use.
On the first day of summer 2013, agriculture officials confirmed that 50,000 bees—likely representing more than 300 colonies—discovered dead in a shopping mall parking lot in Wilsonville, Oregon, were done in by a neonicotinoid pesticide sprayed on nearby trees.
Every five years or so, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association releases a National Beef Quality Audit, conducted through the beef checkoff program (checkoff programs collect money from producers to fund promotional campaigns and research).
